Begging For The Light
by Lady Cailin
Summary: Jareth has been waiting three long years for a sign from Sarah, and he's all but given up hope. Was what he saw in her eyes really an illusion, or is there still hope for a man living in shadows?
1. Begging For the Light- Jareth

Begging For The Light by Lady Cailin  
Authors Note: This is just a little something I spat out in about half an hour. It's a short fic from Jareth's point of view. I think a lot of people end up feeling angry, lost, even unworthy when they are rejected by someone they desire. Who is to say Jareth is any different? (Of course that doesn't mean he has to like it!)  
Disclaimer: Jareth/Sarah/Labyrinth copyrighted by the Jim Henson Company. I take no financial benefit from the following fanfiction which was writen without the creator's consent.

* * *

The Goblin King sat quietly in the empty thrown room without torch or magic light to drive away the shadows of the hall. He sat with his booted feet spread and his elbows resting on his thighs. His shoulders were hunched and his silver head lowered as he watched the wine in his crystal goblet swirl like ruby blood.

He had lost.

It was not an easy thing to admit, even to ones self, but after almost three years of waiting and watching, he had finally come to the conclusion that he had lost. He had lost everything, because he had lost his heart to a girl who had forgotten him the moment she left his world forever. His grip on the crystal goblet became firm and his jaw locked in silent anger against his own admission. He had given her his heart.

For almost three years he had watched her. At first there had been anger and the undeniable desire for revenge. Anger that she had won the game, anger that she had rejected all he offered. He had convinced himself sometime during her stay in the labyrinth that it was perfectly natural for him to desire his enemy, to admire her courage and his hunger for the loving acceptance she showed her bad of misfits was nothing but several solitary years creeping up on him. That illusion had crumbled after a year of watching, when she had finally called upon the others one more time. Then came a new anger. Anger that she had turned away his final offer. She had taken something from him in that moment that he hadn't realized he even desired.

Light within this tainted world. He had seen her play many parts those hours in the labyrinth. Friend, Sister, Adventurer, Lover. . .She had been kind and cruel, intelligent and innocent. She had shown him how very much alike they were in all ways, except for one. She was light and laughter, and he. . .

He raised him silver head and looked around the deserted thrown room with a sneer for the bare surroundings that greeted him. He was like this room, dark and cold, and so very empty. He had wanted to touch that light so badly he had burned with it. He fought against it just as she fought against him, and in the end her light had left him bared in her presence. He'd all but begged for her, not for the labyrinth as he would later try to convince himself, but for her. . .for her love. He had been ready to fall to his knees and plead with her to simply hear the words he could not speak, to see behind the mask and find something worth her love. . .her light.

That absolution had never come, and for a time he had hoped her rejection was for the boy's sake, from fear, from anything but a lack within him. Three years he had waited, for a word, a whisper in the night, any sign that she might think back on that moment with regret. He watched outside in the night as she called to her friends for comfort, and waited in the shadows as she came home from several dates. He was a predator in the shadows, a creature of the night unable to move into the light, but drawn to it never the less

He had never felt more alone in his life than in those moments watching another man hold her. He had never felt such an all consuming rage as when another kissed her. . .because. . .

Standing, he threw the crystalline goblet against the stone wall, his mismatched eyes glowing in the cold darkness.

. . .Because something deeper than lust or love or instinct told him that Sarah was his. His to hold and love, his to torment and infuriate, and he wanted to scream out with the knowledge that she was blind to that. He wanted to touch her, to make her see it and claim her in every way as his own. He wanted there to be no doubt in her mind that she belonged to the Goblin King.

With an angry snap of his hand he called a crystal held it outstretched at eye level in his hand, watching as it slowly melted and then fell from his hands in a thin mist. With a flared breath every torch in the room burst into flickering life and his glowing eyes took in every inch of the illusion standing before him.  
His Sarah.

Sarah as she had been at the ball, the closest she had ever come to tender feelings for him. Her hair was a wispy mass of midnight tresses strung with fresh flowers and silver gauze. She was beautiful, and just as untouchable as the Sarah he had left sleeping soundly in her bed only an hour ago. He circled the image carefully, slowly memorizing in every breath taking inch of her.

It was a perfect copy of his Sarah. . .

He drew his hand harshly through the middle of the illusion, watching as it crumbled into the dust of a crystal at his feet.

But it was just a copy.

After a moment in the silence he bent to one knee, fingering the sand fine dust of the crystal as it glittered between his fingers.

And then something caught his attention. Not a sound or a movement, but a feeling that went deeper than magic. He closed his mismatched eyes for a moment as a shaky smile relief crossed his face.

His Sarah was calling to him. . .

The Goblin Kind slowly faded from the room, off to a bedroom where a young woman cried out into the night a name she had sworn she would never speak. Hesitantly a young goblin crept from the shadows of the room and scurried towards the small pile of crystalline dust that marked the floor of the Goblin King's thrown room. In fascination he watched as the single tear that had slipped unnoticed from the King's eyes shimmered through the crystal like liquid silver.

And began to shine with the soft light born from darkness.

"Pretty light. . ."

* * *

Final Note: Alright so that probably didn't make much sense, but I was bored and tired and felt like getting some of these waves of Labyrinth ideas out of my system for tonight. For those who actually thought there was some merrit to this, I'll soon be writing a longer Labyrinth ficcie. Stay tuned for more!

Oh! Before I forget! Please review!


	2. Dreams of Dust- Sarah

Dreams of Dust by Lady Cailin

Authors Note: Originally I had only intended for this to be a very short one piece from Jareth's POV, but after the second day of reviews/out right flattery asking for more I decided I may as well put off plotting that big series for a few minutes and send out another short fic since everyone seemed to like the last one so much (although as always, in retrospect I probably could have done better). Another warning, this is a quickie as I'm writing this after getting home from work and before going to bed. I'm not really sure if I got the dream sequence confusion in exactly as I wanted it, but there you have it.

Disclaimer: Jareth/Sarah/Labyrinth copyrighted by the Jim Henson Company. I take no financial benefit from the following fanfiction which was writen without the creator's consent.

* * *

Sarah pulled out the leather bound sketch book to stare accusingly at the drawing hidden between it's folds. The dark eyes of the Goblin King stared back at her in the silence. With a low growl of frustration she snapped the book shut and threw it into a corner of her closet.

She hated art anyway.

It had been three long years since she had last seen those mismatched eyes and she had hoped to never see them again, waiting for the day they would no longer greet her dreams each night. She had almost convinced herself he was forgotten, banished back to his labyrinth when she had forced out those last words. The night of her return she had forced him out of her mind, out of her thoughts and life, forever.

Apparently she had forgotten to search the region of her heart before she had closed the door of her life on the Goblin King. She'd been sitting in art when the teacher had put them through an exercise designed to allow them to draw from within rather than with their eyes.

Close your eyes, put pen to paper, and draw what you see. It had actually been quiet calming, allowing nothing to enter her mind but the feel of the paper and that silky, rough sound of her pencil caressing the paper. When she opened her eyes, there he'd been, wild hair and seductive eyes mocking her efforts to push him aside as the folly of a child. Her art teacher had been delighted.

She had vowed never to close her eyes again.

Her palms itched to retrieve the book and rip the accursed drawing from it's folds, to banish his image one more time, and she was dying to say it just once more: It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair that after all this time, after all she had done to try and forget him, he could appear without appearing and ruin her life once more. She'd done everything right, she hadn't talked about Jareth even once when she called to Hoggle and Ludo, had even changed the subject when Sir Didymus brought up the subject of his king. She'd banished 'The Book' to the cold recesses of the basement. She'd resolutely pushed away thoughts of glittering ballrooms when they managed to creep into her thoughts. Sarah had forced normalcy into every aspect of her once fanciful life. Her grades had never been better, her room never cleaner and her social life was more successful than most teenagers came to expect. She had even picked out a boring, studious college for next year. Yet she still dreamed about a man with wild ivory hair and the cry of the night in his voice.

She sighed, feeling tired all of the sudden. She had been on edge ever since that art class, scared that somehow he was watching, had seen this sudden betrayal of her heart. Scared that it was really her heart that had controlled her hand, and not magic or memory. Scared that after doing everything right to keep from falling in love with the Goblin King, she had failed.

She was terrified that she might have lost after all.

With soft groan she laid back into the comforting warmth of pillows on her bed. She just needed to sleep once without that dream haunting her. Without the masks of the ballroom dancing around her and without Jareth offering her dreams one last time, a yearning in his mismatched eyes that always plagued her when she awoke. She just needed to stop the dreams. Then she wouldn't flinch with guilt every time a date tried to kiss her and her heart wouldn't pull tight in her chest when she caught site of a pail head of hair in a crowd.  
Then she would be normal.

It was with that final thought that she drifted to sleep.

* * *

They danced and the laughed, crystals and flames glittering overhead. Sarah pushed her way through, watching as the strangely costumed dancers cackled at her delicate appearance. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. She knew it as she knew that Jareth was among the dancers, watching her, always watching her. She had to go to him, it was a need calling to her stronger than even her desire to breath. She had to reach him, touch him, or . . .or. . .

Or he would die.

She pushed through the dancers as the laughed harder, louder, the sound pounding in her head. She had to reach Jareth. Jareth. . .

There! She pushed ahead as the crowd opened momentarily, allowing her the glimpse of a man with pail hair standing among them, his head lowered to hide his face from her. Jareth. . .

Suddenly the crowd melted away, and only they where left in the wide expanse of the ballroom, the music and the laughter fading into shadows. _Jareth. . .lover. . .tormentor. . . Goblin King. . .  
_

Slowly, he held up a crystal to her, as he had the last time they met, but he never looked to her eyes, his own lowered and giving no clue to the emotions going on behind the lovely facade.

The offer, be his, love him, need him, be one with him. . .just take the crystal. . .

She hesitated, her heart begging her to take that one step and hold tightly to what he offered, and her mind whispering all those other things.

_Tormentor. . .monster. . .Goblin King. . .  
_

He looked up suddenly, his eyes meeting hers.

Longing, love, dejection, pain. . .so much pain in those eyes. . .

She stepped out and reached for him, but as she did so he crumbled, falling into a pile of glittering dust at her feet. She cried, stooping to bury her hands in the fine sand. Jareth, gone.

It was all her fault.

* * *

Sarah sobbed loudly, curling her body into a tight ball as the feeling of loss overwhelmed her and her soul cried out with it. Without another thought to tomorrow, to the consequences, to normalcy, she whispered into the night.

"Jareth. . ."

* * *


	3. Through a Crystal Pool

Through a Crystal Pool by Lady Cailin  
  
  
  
Authors Note/Disclaimer:  
Hi! Sorry it's been so long everyone! I've been very busy recently and haven't had the time to write much at all. Life sometimes gangs up on you in a dark alley and forces you to give it all your time.   
Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! I only finally made time to write this weekend and when I did I found all those wonderful reviews waiting for me. You guys are great! However, I'm putting my foot down, this is the last chapter! I hope you all enjoy it!  
The words withing [these] are quoets from the movie which (hopefully) set the mood without being confusing. They are supposed to be centered but I don't have faith that it'll end up like that after upload, so you all get weird markings. Sorry.  
Jareth/Sarah/Labyrinth copyrighted by the Jim Henson Company. I take no financial benefit from the following fanfiction which was writen without the creator's consent.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
[What do you want? Do you want a story? Huh? Okay. . .]  
  
  
Sarah turned into her pillow as anguished sobs ripped through her body and an ache settled in her heart. The room around her was a deafeningly silent observer to her grief, and a cold reminder of reality that only drove the roots of her anguish deeper. Her fingertips tingled in remembrance of reaching for Jareth and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the memory of his eyes, the memory of crystalline dust.   
  
He was gone.  
  
Jareth couldn't be gone her heart cried. He was her Goblin King, her terrible enemy and her secret longing, the center of every truly passionate emotion she had ever had.   
  
Gone. . .   
  
  
[Once Upon a Time, there was a beautiful young girl   
whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby   
the baby was a spoiled child  
he wanted everything for himself   
and the girl was practically a slave!  
But what no one knew was that the Goblin King fell in love with her  
and gave her certain powers.}  
  
  
Jareth sat silently balanced on the old limb of the oak which stood guard outside Sarah's room. He had watched her from here many nights, nights when the yearning within him could not be subdued by watching a pale reflection in a crystal. Nights when he almost hurt with longing for a girl who controlled him with dreams and bled his heart daily.  
  
Tonight was worse.  
  
Tonight all those longing nights pushed together as one ache in his heart, and ache made all the more bitter by hope. He had thought when he first felt that silent tug, that call in the night, that it was finally over. He had hoped that at last Sarah had found that part within her that knew. That part that whispered, cried that they were tied beyond love or lust or destiny. He had become well aquatinted with that whisper, that heart wrenching need. . .  
  
But there were rules that bound even a Goblin King.  
  
  
["Say your right words," the goblins said, "and you will be free."]  
  
  
Sarah brushed the tears from her skin and pushed away from the bed, scrambling to the corner where she had banished her drawing. Something told her that if that picture was still there, then so was Jareth. It was a mad, unreasonable conclusion, but her heart whispered that the picture was proof. This was proof to banish nightmares and force the ache from her chest.  
She held her breath as she flipped to the drawing in her portfolio, the moonlight poring from her window shifting to reveal the dark marks of her pencil.   
  
Smeared.   
  
What had once been a beautiful rendition of the proud and calculating Goblin King was now a dark mass of smeared pencil marks, the sure sign of an artist with a heavy hand. It was unrecognizable, all except for the eyes, those sad, lovely eyes.   
Her hand hovered above those eyes that had seemed so mocking only this afternoon. Now they reflected that same pain she had glimpsed when she had said those words.   
  
Those damn words.  
  
  
[. . .You have no power over me. . .]  
  
  
It was her fault. All of it. Hadn't she been the one to wish Toby away? Like a child she'd blamed him all these years, pushing him away from the realm of her heart with that silent reminder.  
  
Tormentor. . .monster. . .Goblin King. . .  
  
  
[What have you done that's generous?]  
  
  
She'd kept him in the shadows of her memory, branded him a villain and ignored everything else. Ignored the memory of his face as she turned from him in the ballroom. She'd ignored every revealing look, every silent hint that there was something missing within the picture. She'd pushed aside the anger, the dark cry in his voice. She hadn't even tried to understand because that wasn't how it was done.   
  
The fairy-tale princess didn't fall in love with the evil goblin king.  
  
She hadn't looked beyond that. It was too simple to play out the part, just like acting out a scene from a play. It had been too easy to reduce him to the role of tyrant and ignore the rest. A sob ripped from her body and she clutched the picture to her, tears falling on the thick paper of her art book.  
  
He'd even helped her keep the illusion, let her play her part.  
  
[Everything!  
Everything that you wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken.  
I took him  
You cowered before me.  
I was frightening.  
I have reordered time.   
I have turned the world upside-down and I have done it all for you!  
I am exhaused from living up to your expectations of me  
Isn't that generous?]  
  
Her sobs quieted again after a time and she sat unmoving in the corner, the sketchbook cradled to her tightly. A strange, empty sort of calm washed over her as her tears dried, leaving salty trails on her cheeks. Tired and emotionally drained, one clear thought came through to the for front of her mind.  
  
She'd failed.  
  
She'd fallen in love with the Goblin King.  
  
Sarah glanced down at the sketch again, to see those sad eyes watching her. She loved Jareth. She'd fallen in love with one of the most spoiled, aggravating men in existence. She smiled briefly, a slimmer of humor brushing to the surface at that thought. Wouldn't Karen be _delighted_ with that. Then again Dad would be down right livid that she'd fallen in love with a man who wore tights. Toby. . .Toby would be happy because she'd fallen in love with a man who would give her the world and more if she asked.   
  
The question was, could she still ask?  
  
["Say your right words," the goblins said, "and you will be free."]  
  
"I wish. . ."  
* * *  
  
  
Jareth forced at least the guise of outer calm. His eyes, as always, gave away the truth. The Goblin King, the master of cold indifference and boredom, was half mad with worry and hope. Sarah knew the power of a wish by now, knew that once spoken from the heart, it couldn't be taken back. If she made the wish now then he wouldn't let her take it back damn it. She'd be his, body, heart and soul forever. A fierce surge of possessiveness raced through his veins at that thought and he closed his eyes again the site of her. If she didn't say the words. . .  
The wind picked up as the world around him readied for a storm, the wind howling low through the trees.  
  
"Say it Sarah." Firey mismatched eyes opened to reveal a mailstrom of emotions. "Say the words."  
  
  
[Just fear me-  
Love me-  
Do as I say-  
and I will be your slave]  
  
  
Sarah's hands tightened on the sketchbook until her knuckles turned white. So much to loose if she said it. . .But god how much more she could gain. . .  
  
"I wish. . ."  
  
She stood, closing her eyes as her whole heart opened to the wish, putting everything she had into this one desire.   
  
"I wish Jareth was here. . ."  
  
Thunder crashed as the wind beat against the windows of her room. Please god, please let it work. I'll give anything, do anything, just let it work.  
  
". . .right now!"  
  
* * *  
  
  
Hoggle smiled in a way that looked almost pleasant and gentle on his worn face. The goblins huddled around him gurgled and made sounds of appreciation as they watched Sarah speak the words through the quick silver puddle. He was glad he'd followed his instincts and come to the palace. That was the thing about the Labyrinth, you could feel it in your bones when something magical was happening. The crystal pool in the Goblin King's thrown room had drawn the creatures of the Labyrinth like bees to honey.  
  
He frowned fiercly at a group of goblins shoving at his right, everyone wanted to see what would happen next, now that the girl who ate the peach had finally called to the Goblin King who liked to watch her.  
Everyone watched, most afraid to move or even breath as the scene unfolded. Ludo audibly sucked in and then held his breath as the Goblin King appeared sprawled across the bed of Sarah's room. He looked casual enough, but those who knew him well, or at least the ones who paid attention, could tell he was anything but calm.   
  
"You should really try not to cry Sarah. It makes you turn rather puffy and red. You look as if you'd gotten your first smell of the Bog."   
Various sounds of disaproval echoed throughout the thrown room as the group observing heard the Goblin King's comment.  
  
"I say that wasn't quiet what I had expected his Majesty to say right then. Do you think she could say the words again and he could have another go?" Sir Didymus asked worriedly as Sarah's eyes snapped open with a flash of anger evident.  
"Jareth bad." Ludo agreed, peering into the pool.   
  
Hoggle wasn't that worried. Jareth didn't handle vulnerablity very well. In fact Jareth didn't handle most emotions well. Sarah had just admitted her own feelings by calling him, but it was now time for the Goblin King to echo his own. If that were all they had to hang their hats on it would end up being a very long night.  
Luckily, Sarah didn't look all that angry once she finally turned and saw Jareth lying there. That meant she was happy to see him. Which meant Jareth had a chance of coming to his senses before his ego ruined everything.  
  
Hopefully that is.  
  
Sarah carelessly tossed the sketchbook back into the corner as she approached the bed, her expression hardening. The group around the pool waited with baited breath as she stopped in front of the casually sprawled Goblin King and put her hands on her hips, her chin up.  
"You are the most aggravating, spoiled, contemptible man I have ever met." The group flinched, a groan rising up among them. Hoggle noticed Jareth didn't look to happy at the moment either.  
  
"You steal babies, specifically my brother and you put me through hell in your Labyrinth."   
Ludo groaned, covering his eyes as he rocked his giant body back and forth, almost dislodging several of the goblins perched on him.  
  
"It doesn't look good men. I'm afraid I shall have to take matters into my own hands and-" Hoggle frowned and covered Didymus' mouth as Sarah continued, her expression softening.  
  
"You also gave me the best friends I've ever had and made me appreciate having Toby. You showed me I could grow up without loosing my imagination and the magic. You. . ." Her voice broke as he rose from the bed to stand in front of her, his mismatched eyes looking down on her with an unreadable expression, her own filling with tears again.  
  
"You. . . Jareth I love you." The words were barely past her lips before his own captured hers in their first kiss.   
  
Hoggle smiled as the room went up in cheers. He was glad the little missy would be happy. He could have wished for someone _other_ than the Goblin King to take her heart, but he knew Jareth would treasure her above all things. With any hope she'd have a good effect on him.   
  
She might even get him to remove the Bog.  
  
  
  
  
  
Authors Note: Bah, I have the icky feeling that I could have done better, so you may see a revision of this at a later date. Well I'm hoping to get back to my writing by next weekend. This weekend I made time for catch up on this and other fics where I had promised readers chapters. Next weekend you guys will get to see something new. Until then!   
  
  



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